The present invention generally relates to mechanisms for removably securing a die and rotary cutter to the discharge of a cooker and particularly relates to mechanisms for allowing the quick and easy change of a die and rotary cutter to the discharge of a cooker and for allowing ease of servicing of the barrel of the cooker and, in preferred aspects, generally relates to rotary cutters producing synergistic results utilized with such removably securing mechanisms.
During the normal operation of a cooker/extruder, it becomes necessary and/or desirable to change the die from which the extrudate passes from the cooker and/or the rotary cutter which cuts the extrudate passing from the die. For example, the die often becomes plugged, requiring it to be replaced with a clean one. Dies for forming complexly shaped products are especially prone to plugging and other die complications. Similarly, the die may be replaced with a die extruding extrudates of a differing configuration and/or size. Conventionally, dies were secured to cookers by a plurality of fasteners which were required to be removed and replaced each time the die was desired to be replaced. In addition to being very time consuming, removal and replacement of such fasteners typically required several personnel including mechanics. Further, in addition to personnel costs, the time required to replace the die takes the cooker out of production and loses the steady state conditions for the cooker.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,437 issued Nov. 26, 1996 discloses a cooker die removably securing mechanism representing a major advance in significantly reducing the time and personnel required to replace the die. Although not requiring taking the cooker out of production while the die was being changed, it was necessary to axially space the rotary cutter from the die to prevent the knives of the rotary cutter from catching on the die and/or slide plate. Although continuously rotating, dough, especially if of a sticky consistency, tended to bunch up under the knives when the cutter was retracted and before the new die was moved into position allowing the flow of food therethrough but before the rotary cutter was axially moved to abut the knives with the die, with the bunched up dough becoming sandwiched between the knives and the die face when the rotary cutter was axially slid back in place. Thus, the knives did not uniformly cut the extrudate, requiring the cooker to be taken out of production to remove the bunched up dough on the knives or to otherwise service the rotary cutter. Also, the knives of the rotary cutter wear and otherwise are damaged during normal operation such that the cooker had to be taken out of production whenever service was required on the rotary cutter.
Additionally, a conventional manner of mixing dough is by flowing the dough through static mixer elements in the flow passage. It can be appreciated that if the flow of dough is stopped for an extended period of time, the dough will harden or become sufficiently stiff so that it clogs the static mixer elements thereby preventing flow of the dough therethrough. In that event, it is necessary to remove the static mixer elements from the flow passage so that the hardened or stiff dough can be removed and the static mixer elements otherwise cleaned. Also, for that and other hygienic reasons, the static mixer elements are removed from the flow passage when food production is offline for an extended period such as for a weekend or the like. Substantial disassembly was required to gain access to the static mixer elements and reassembly was also required when food production was desired to be brought back online, which disassembly and reassembly being time consuming and requiring highly trained technicians.
Thus, a need exists for a mechanism that allows for the removable securement of the die and rotary cutter to the cooker which does not require the removal and replacement of a plurality of fasteners and which reduces the personnel required to replace the die and/or rotary cutter and which does not require the cooker to be taken out of production.
Further, a need exists for an improved rotary cutter having trouble-free operation, which is easy to clean and which has exceptional advantages in mechanisms providing quick and easy replacement of dies for cookers.
Additionally, a need exists for a mechanism that allows for the removal for cleaning or otherwise servicing of mixer elements in the flow passages while minimizing the requirement for disassembly (and reassembly) in both time, complexity, and personnel. In this regard, it would be desirable that such a mechanism providing ease of mixer element servicing also provides ease of removable securement of rotary cutters and/or dies to the cooker.
Likewise, a need exists for a mechanism that allows for ease of replacement of wear plates against which the slide plate holding dies slides and without requiring removal of the slide plate from the mechanism frame, with the wear plates preferably being sacrificial.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a novel mechanism for removably securing a die and rotary cutter to a cooker.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a novel mechanism for connecting and disconnecting a rotatable input to an output and allowing nonaxial movement between the input and output when disconnected and which is particularly adaptable for use but not limited for use with a cooker die and rotary cutter removably securing mechanism.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a novel mechanism for removing mixer elements from the flow passages while minimizing disassembly and reassembly.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a novel rotary cutter.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel rotary cutter which rotates about and is carried entirely by a stationary center shaft fixed to the die.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel rotary cutter which is especially advantageous for use in sliding plate die removable securement mechanisms.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel mixer element removing mechanism obtaining synergistic results in the removable securement of a die to the cooker elements.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel mixer element removing mechanism which does not require removal of the cooker from the mechanism frame to remove the mixer elements.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel mixer element removing mechanism providing plates between the slideable die and the cooker allowing reduced sliding force and without food leakage and which is especially advantageous for providing sliding seals for multiple flow passages.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel cooker die removably securing mechanism allowing for ease of replacement of wear plates against which the slide plate holding dies slides and without requiring removal of the slide plate from the mechanism frame.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel cooker die and rotary cutter removably securing mechanism which does not require fasteners between the flange of the cooker and the die and rotary cutter.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel cooker die and rotary cutter removably securing mechanism which does not require the cooker to be taken out of production to replace or otherwise service the die and/or rotary cutter.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel cooker die and rotary cutter removably securing mechanism which reduces the personnel required to replace the die and/or rotary cutter.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel cooker die and rotary cutter removably securing mechanism resulting in improved product quality due to more frequent die and/or rotary cutter changes.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel cooker die and rotary cutter removably securing mechanism resulting in quicker system start-ups such as following down weekends.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel cooker die and rotary cutter removably securing mechanism resulting in increased productivity.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel cooker die and rotary cutter removably securing mechanism having reduced ingredient losses.